Hopefully someone learns a few things from this one...

Edson man trapped for three days
Andrea Sands, edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - An Edson sheep hunter trapped in a mountain canyon for three days was so desperate to get warm that he set his shirt on fire to generate heat.

Roy Getson, 25, was plucked by helicopter Thursday morning from the three-metre wide canyon in the mountains about 40 kilometres northwest of Nordegg. He was hunting big-horn sheep alone Monday when he slipped and fell about 15 metres into the gorge as he stopped to take a scenic picture.

"It's something I've done 100 times before in different places, and this time I fell in," Getson said Saturday from his home in Edson. "It was a fairly straight fall down into the water."

Getson landed in a shallow creek. He was only about one and a half kilometres from his truck at the time.

Full story here.

"Stranded in the ravine, he picked his way down the creek that led back towards his truck... Eventually, Getson's path was cut off by a steep cliff and waterfall."

He doesn't seem to be the brightest light in the harbor, does he? Go hunting alone, then stand on slick rock at the edge of a sheer drop.

Canyons and ravines usually have TWO ends, at least. Because he couldn't get out one way (toward his truck), I guess he didn't think of trying the other way.

"All I had on was just a day pack that hardly had anything in it," he said.

So whose fault was that?

Sue

I watched an episode of Survivorman where he was in the desert and talked about people who crawl down into a slot canyon to get water and find themselves unable to get back out.

Hmmm. Dont pack jeans. pack heavy fleece.
carry spare food. tinder. signal mirror/ walkie-talkie.
tell someone where you are going. don't hunt alone.

This would be a good exercise -- what SHOULD he have packed in his backpack?* What SHOULD he have done to preparefor this event?

Teacher

* esp. unique items for wilderness, Fall, hunting in Canada, solo.

The foothills of the Canadian Rockies aren't a hard place to survive. In fact, they're a great place to practice your skills. There's water, endless materials for shelter and fire, and at this time of year, edible berries all over the ground.

But: if you've fallen into a narrow canyon, can't get out, are soaked through, can't make fire, and the rain turns to snow (common at that elevation), the equation is a bit more complex. That water is very darn cold at this time of year. If he'd been badly hurt by the fall, this story would have had a tragic ending.

I don't think he needed any special gear. Just the usual what-if preparations for an impromptu overnight stay. Standard notification of where you'll be and when to call for rescue. A note on the dash of his truck -- "heading NW, back by dark, date, initials."

And possibly boots with better grip on slippery rock.

I'm going to assume I have a decent knife since I'm going hunting. I would have my PSK - not too different from Doug's in content.

Additionally, for solo hunting in an isolated area, I would take a small FAK, at least two liters of water, a decent small flashlight, a mylar emergency blanket, a poncho, an esbit stove & half a dozen fuel tabs, a sierra cup, and a few rations (a couple of power bars, a couple of packets of instant soup, some tea bags). On top of that, a spare wool watch cap, gloves or mittens and pair of heavy socks would not be out of place.

Last in this list but by no means last in the real world, I'd probably strongly consider taking along a PLB.

Now the weight is up to the point where I'm probably going to bag the "solo" part and take a hunting buddy along to carry part of the load - not to mention helping me pack out the sheep we're going to get.

Frank2135